LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1443, 18 May 1912, Page 6

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

MINISTER DEFENDS THE BILL

DR. NEWMAN'S CRITICISMS,

The Local Government Conference will assemble in the Sydney Street Schoolroom at 10 o'clock next Tuesday morning, and is expected to continue from day to day until the following Friday. The Hon. G. W. Russell, Minister l'or Internal Affairs, will preside.

Tho Minister had something to say on Thursday in reply !o Dr. Newman's criticisms of the Local Government JSill.

"Without anticipating what action the Government may take at the conference next week," said Mr. Russell, "I. cannot help being amu-ed at the line of attack taken by Dr. Newman, M.l'., in the interview published in Wednesday's Dominion. He threw liis whole strength against the proposal to establish J'raviiicial Councils and pictured with horror the possibility of a new body being established which would have tho right to levy rates oil Wellington. City, Petoue borough and otser sef-governing centres. Surely Dr. Newman has forgotten that a body is now in existence which covers practically the same area as the proposed Provincial Council and is at the present time exercising a rating power in this city and distinct. I hardly need say that I refer to the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board. Last year the Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards oi the Dominion levied rates amounting to no less than >£131,000, and Wellington, as one of the leading cities, paid its share. Its municipal corporation had no voice in the levying of this rate, its responsibility being merely to collect its quota and hand it over to the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board.

"Surely this critic of the Bill must have forgotten, when ho spoke as he did, the simple facts I have mentioned. Again, he speaks of the Provincial Councils being elected by a large area, and the majority of the members consequently representing districts outside the city. It not that tho exact position in regard I tho Harbour Board at tho prcsenF time? It was one of tho misfortunes that followed from the necessary abolition of the old provinces that the issue of Town r. Country was raised and I think it b a matter for_ great regret that at this stage a politician of Dr. Nevrmnn's experience should think it necessary to raise the cry of city against cowutry interests.

"The fact is that large areas are already covered by the Harbour Board. Education Board, and the Hospital and Charitablo Aid Board, and tho Local Government Bill aims, rightly or wrongly, at setting up a distinct authority which wil l combine these three forms of local government under one controlling body. This should lead to simplification and presumably to economy. Tho results achieved will probably depend upon the class oi men elected to the Provincial Councils. 3 am not now discussing the principle"oi tho measure, and it may be necessary to reconsider the question of the establishment of Provincial Councils, but it must appear to any unbiased person that there are numerous powers now being exercised by Parliament and tho central

Government which could well bo handed over to some local authority standing between the minor local authorities, such as tho Petono Borough Council or the Hutt County Council, and tho Parliament of the country. I imagine the country is crying out that on the one hand the powers of the local bodies must bo strengthened, and that on the other hand Parliament must unload those purely parish functions that it now exercises. The question is to what body those functions can be handed over. Surely Dr. Newman would not propose that they should be handed over to a county cohncil or borough council having within its boundaries a population. of perhaps a few hundred people. A scientific system of local government would surely comprise an. intermediate body between the Parliamentary machine and tho bodies exercising tho ordinary normal functions of local government. There is also a large 11 ninber of functions that could well be exercised by the larger bodies to the benefit of the localities where thev would operate. It must bo admitted that New Zealand, with its diverse population, has a variety of needs which could not be met by any Act of Parliament, but could bo provided for by such bodies as the proposed provincial councils. "I think I have shown that there is another side to this question than that represented by the member for Wellington East, and that his ambition to kill tho Bill does not spring altogether from a knowledge of its principles or its dotails."

CONDEMNED IN TOTO. (fly Telegraph—Pres« Association.) Waihi, Mav 17. ■ At the meeting of tho Borough Council to-night, tho Local Government Bill was condemned in toto.